Microsoft acquires Xbone domain

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - Microsoft officially does not approve of the "Xbone" nickname for the Xbox One, but it bought the domain anyway, taking it away from cybersquatters who've owned it for more than a decade.

Xbox One

Earlier this week, Major Nelson (Director of Programming for Xbox Live Larry Hryb) posted online that he "doesn't like" the use of "Xbone".

It disrespects the teams that have put in thousands of hours (already) into the development of the product. Sure, it's cheeky but I don't care for it myself.

The news first popped up on eagle-eyed site Fusible, who observes that Microsoft likely paid the former registrants a hefty sum. Not a bad deal for them, given that Xbone.com was first registered back in March 2000, and didn't actually relate to the games machine at all.

Currently, visitors to Xbone.com are redirected to a Bing search for "Xbone" - while the similarly-named Xboned.com points to a parody site promising "all the news on all the latest self-published indie games titles for Microsoft's Xbox One!".